We should all take Plato's advice and never give
up everlasting hope, "alluring ourselves as with enchantments, for the
hope is noble and the reward is great." Quite right. It would be no
greater miracle that brought us into another world to live forever
with our dearest than that which has brought us into this one to live
a lifetime with them. Both are equally incomprehensible to finite
beings. Let us therefore comfort ourselves with everlasting hope, "as
with enchantments," as Plato recommends, never forgetting, however,
that we all have our duties here and that the kingdom of heaven is
within us. It also passed into an axiom with us that he who proclaims
there is no hereafter is as foolish as he who proclaims there is,
since neither can know, though all may and should hope. Meanwhile
"Home our heaven" instead of "Heaven our home" was our motto.
During these years of which I have been writing, the family fortunes
had been steadily improving. My thirty-five dollars a month had grown
to forty, an unsolicited advance having been made by Mr. Scott. It was
part of my duty to pay the men every month.[19] We used checks upon
the bank and I drew my salary invariably in two twenty-dollar gold
pieces. They seemed to me the prettiest works of art in the world.
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